Mohegan Sun CEO signs three-year contract

Mohegan - Bobby Soper, Mohegan Sun's president and chief executive officer, has signed a new three-year contract with a base salary of $800,000 a year.

Soper, 41, a member of the Mohegan Tribe that owns the casino, took the facility's top job last October, succeeding Jeffrey Hartmann. Soper was president and CEO of Mohegan Sun at Pocono Downs, the tribe's racetrack casino near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., at the time of his promotion. He previously served as Mohegan Sun's chief legal officer and senior vice president of administration before transferring to the Pennsylvania property in 2005.

Soper's return to Connecticut has coincided with tough business conditions, including the sluggish U.S. and state economies, competition from gambling facilities in neighboring states and severe weather.

Mohegan Sun has reported double-digit declines in slot-machine revenues in four of the last five months through February.

"It's definitely a different time period from an economic standpoint," Soper said Friday of his second stint at the Uncasville casino. "(But) the transition has been smooth. I feel like I've reacclimated to the property. It's been a good five months … except for hurricanes and three feet of snow."

Soper and the Mohegan Tribal Gaming Authority reached a contract agreement last month, according to a filing Thursday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The contract calls for Soper to be paid at the rate of $750,000 a year from March 1 to April 21 of this year and at the rate of $800,000 a year thereafter. His salary will increase July 1, 2014, and each July 1 thereafter.

The contract, set to expire June 30, 2016, will automatically renew for additional one-year terms unless either party notifies the other it intends to terminate.

Soper earned a base salary of about $466,000 during the fiscal year that ended last September, according to the authority's annual report. The authority is paying Hartmann, who earned a base salary of nearly $1.3 million in the last fiscal year, through September 2014.